Family Time and the Summer 2025 Anime Season
My wife and I went to The Welk Resorts in Escondido, CA, with my mother and father for a mini vacation. We used our timeshare, and outings like this are exactly why we got it. It was only for two nights, but we got to have family bonding time. The villas were very nice, and we even got to bring our dog. My dad told us how he got into the U.S. Navy from the Philippines and how hard he worked to really achieve the American Dream. We also went to National City where there is a big Filipino community and many Filipino stores. We ate some Filipino food for breakfast and got some halo-halo dessert as well. We even went to church together in the neighboring city, Vista, and we got to get brunch at a local breakfast place there. It was a fun time, and I could tell that my parents enjoyed it.
It was also the end of a lot of anime series this week for the summer 2025 anime season. While a few did get sequels picked up, many others did not. For those that did not, manga or light novels are the only way to continue on with the story, making the anime simply an advertisement for the light novels or manga. A lot of series every season, admittedly, are rather “mid” and really not worth continuing. The fantasy isekai genre and the banished from the heroes party sub-genre have been very prevalent as of late, and many of them are just average at best. Being someone who enjoys and writes fantasy, I cannot help but watch them anyways. As far as series that I really liked this season, there is: Gachiakuta, Dan Da Dan, Kaiju No. 8, Secrets of the Silent Witch, Dr. Stone, and Clevates. Ones that I enjoyed that I would consider good-but-not-great are: The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses, Bad Girl, New Saga, Dealing with Mikadono Sisters is a Breeze, I was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince season 2 and Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant. The fall season anime list came out, and I’m sure that I’ll watch a lot of those.
Overall, it was a much-needed relaxing week, especially considering the tragedies from the week before. Having the ability to have a short vacation via our timeshare, especially with family, is a benefit that we did not think of when purchasing the timeshare. As far as entertainment is concerned, anime is in full abundance with series that range from average to great. Vacationing and entertainment though are there for the escapism, which can very much be needed.